Ole: Space and climate change

Profile:

Name: Ole Fiskum
Age: 55
Position: Head of department, Space
Education: Engineering qualifications from Tinius Olsen technical college
Employed in KONGSBERG since October 1971
Interests: Fishing and outdoor life, and – of course – space
Public office: Board member for Eurospace

Demanding challenges and extreme conditions

“The engineers who start working in Space never leave,” says Ole Fiskum jokingly. He himself is a living example of exactly that. As one of the veterans in KONGSBERG he has held several posts within the company, but he has stayed in Space since it was established as a separate programme area in 1990.
“Space is a great workplace for engineers who like demanding challenges. We work with systems engineering at its very best. We must be sure that everything we make can function in extreme conditions. It all has to have optimal reliability: we have no opportunities to do maintenance on something that may well be out in space for ten to twelve years. So we have to be sure that what we have made works as it should, when it should and where it should,” Ole Fiskum tells us.

European connections

The engineers in Space are more than moderately interested in outer space. They develop and deliver equipment for booster rockets and satellites – for instance antenna pointing mechanisms and mechanisms that steer solar cell panels. Right now the group is in the process of developing parts for a satellite that is to map billions of stars.
But space engineers are not only involved with space: they also travel quite a lot globally in order to keep regular contact with their competitors and partners in Europe. “The advantage with Space is that those who work here develop close contact with their clients. The teams working on the various projects are small, so there’s a good mixture of technology and proximity to the client,” Fiskum claims.

Surveillance of climate change

 While the Space programme delivers equipment that will be sent out into space, Kongsberg Satellite Services in Svalbard works on equipment that brings information down from space. Each day KONGSBERG makes its contribution to gathering information on climate change in the sea, on the surface of the earth and in space. “This information provides scientists and researchers with work for many years ahead. It’s really interesting to be part of something so big,” concludes Ole Fiskum.

Wanto to learn more about KONGSBERG and environmental technology in outer space? See here